The Cleveland Indians as a unit may have not made the play-offs in 2014, but thanks to the large amount of turnover in Major League rosters, plenty of former Indians have made it to October. For the sake of those fans who have not forgotten, we will bring you an Indians centric view of the Divisional and Wild Card rounds of the 2014 play-offs.
Wild Card Games
The Royals have just a couple former Tribesmen (Jeremy Guthrie and Jayson Nix), neither of whom played in the Wild Card game, but the Athletics had a slightly higher percent with Scott Kazmir, Coco Crisp and Drew Pomeranz. Of those three players, only Crisp got into this game and since the Athletics lost, the others will not get a chance. Crisp went 2/6 in the single elimination game, scoring one of the A’s eight runs in the first and knocking in another with an RBI single later on.
The Giants, who won the NL Wild Card game are the only team in the post-season this year without a former member of the Indians and they beat the Pirates, who had two in John Axford and Jeanmar Gomez. Neither pitcher got into the game that the Pirates lost 8-0
ALDS
The Royals may have be in the play-offs for the first time since 1985, but it was them and not the Division winning Tigers who showed the legitimacy of the American League Central. The West was on the verge of sending three teams into the postseason, but in the last few weeks, the Royals have knocked the Mariners out of contention, then knocked out the Athletics and Angels as well. Of course, they did it mostly with their own, home grown players and since they used only the best players in their three game sweep, Nix was left off the roster and Guthrie went unused.
As for the Angels, they didn’t have much of a chance to use their prime relievers as they never held a lead late in the game, but with two extra inning games, Vinnie Pestano and Joe Smith did each get into two games, combining for three innings and just one hit allowed. They also struck out three as the Angels getting swept had little to do with their former Indians relievers.
On the other side of the AL, the Tigers did not prove as dominant as the Royals as they were swept in three by the Orioles. Of those former Indians no longer in the running, Victor Martinez played well, batting .333 with a home run and three RBI. Also on the roster, Ezequiel Carrera got into all three games defensively, receiving two plate appearances, during one of which he walked and stole a base. For Baltimore, their sole former Indian, Ubaldo Jimenez, did not pitch in the series.
NLDS
Despite the largest pay-roll in baseball and having the greatest pitcher since Greg Maddux, the Dodgers saw a quick exit this year. While they were “aided” during the season by former Indians Roberto Hernandez (aka Fausto Carmona) and Chris Perez, neither pitcher was superior enough to make the final play-off roster. One pitcher who did, however, was Jamey Wright, who was much better during the regular season for the Dodgers at the age of 39 (4.35 ERA in 70.1 IP) than he was with the Indians in 2010 at the age of 35 (5.48 ERA in 21.1 IP). He, however, was not good enough to play in the play-offs as Clayton Kershaw, Zach Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu accounted for 75% of the Dodgers innings pitched.
Defeating Los Angeles was the Cardinals, who reached the NLCS for the fourth straight season. Unlike the Dodgers, one former Indian actually did help them along. While Justin Masterson was not quite up to the Cardinals standards, Jhonny Peralta was somewhat of a hero in the final game of the NLDS. Down 2-0 in the 7th it was a bloop single from Peralta that put runners on first and second just before the Matt Adams home run that won the series for St. Louis. Overall, the former Indians short stop batted .214 with a walk, double and two runs scored in four games.
Like the Cardinals, the Giants continued their deep play-off success, moving on to the NLCS for the third time in the past five years. They did so without the aide of any former Indians, but their opponent, the Washington Nationals retained Asdrubal Cabrera, who was moved prior to the 2014 trade deadline. As their starting second baseman, Cabrera batted an even .200 with a double, home run, two RBI and two runs scored. Even with his moderate offensive success, his most important addition to the NLDS was likely his error in game four that lead to two unearned runs and ultimately a one run San Francisco victory.
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